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THE HONDA CLASSIC

March 2, 2011

Luke Donald

PALM BEACH GARDENS, FLORIDA

JOHN BUSH: We would like to welcome Luke Donald into the interview room here at The Honda Classic. Luke, first of all congratulations on the win last week at the Accenture Match Play Championship. Get to you look back at that week for us and sort of a whirlwind couple of days.
LUKE DONALD: Yeah, obviously an amazing week for me. A lot of things went my way. I played solidly all week. You probably read about, I never got to the 18th hole. Made a bunch of birdies. So I'm obviously riding high on confidence right now and looking forward to being back here.
I've obviously missed the last two Honda Classics, not on purpose, but actually my wife had a baby and two years ago, I kind of twinged my wrist again after I had the surgery. So I'm excited to be back here playing.
JOHN BUSH: Obviously a big tournament for you, you won across the street in 2006 and then you finished runner-up here in 2008. Talk about what this tournament means.
LUKE DONALD: Yeah, obviously before last week, it was my last U.S. victory. So obviously meant a lot. I've always had good feelings about here, it's nice to have some home support, and make it home down here in the winter. I enjoy the course. I think it's a very challenging course. It's obviously got a tremendous field this week.

Q. Jumping to No. 3 in the World Rankings, you've got a few Ryder Cup Team mates around and you ahead of Tiger Woods. Does it surprise you to see your name there? What does it mean to you to see yourself up there and in that company?
LUKE DONALD: Not sure if it surprises me. I certainly feel like I have the talent and ability to get to the top. I'm not really focusing on World Rankings. I'm focusing on just trying to get better each week and every year and hopefully going through those processes turns into wins and the World Rankings kind of take care of themselves.

Q. At the same time, do you anticipate any sort of good jockeying between you and the other guys around you for that top spot? It's more volatile now than it's been in a decade?
LUKE DONALD: It is more volatile. That makes it fun for us players and it makes it fun for the fans, too. I think when Tiger was so dominant, mathematically it was almost possible for anyone to catch him. Unless they won nearly every tournament they played in.
But now it's open and I think that's great for golf. I think that obviously Europe is enjoying an extremely purple patch right now and we are riding the wave very highly. As I said, when Tiger was so far ahead, it just seemed impossible that you could ever get there but things have changed a lot.

Q. Nicklaus was talking earlier about when he had the lean years and it was in the head; did it ever get to you that you were not getting another victory over here?
LUKE DONALD: Certainly it weighs on you and the longer it goes, the harder it becomes. There were definitely times where I had my doubts if I was ever going to win again.
I got frustrated at times, but I think one good thing that kind of kept me going was I was always constantly giving myself chances. It wasn't like I was missing cuts every week and wasn't playing well. I've never had too much of a dip in form. I've always been up there having chances to win and I knew if I kept knocking on the door that eventually it would open.

Q. You were so successful at Augusta for so long in the 80s and 90s and now ironically, the Masters is the only major that a European has not won since '99 and that was OlazÃ¡bal in the group that was winning in the 80s and 90s. Is that just cyclical?
LUKE DONALD: I think mostly it is cyclical. I think just looking with the Europeans having the top four spots, it has not happened since 1992, I believe. You can probably thank PÃ¡draig a little bit for that, him going out and winning the majors inspired some of the Europeans to kind of follow that whole clichÃ© of, if he can do it, so can we.
European golf since then has gone from strength to strength, and hopefully it will only take one European to win a Masters for a bunch of them to follow.

Q. Are you getting off the course right now?
LUKE DONALD: Just finished my Pro-Am.

Q. What did the last four holes, especially the Bear Trap play like?
LUKE DONALD: It played tough. My last four, I started on 1, so it was very windy. The wind is really picking up on my back nine, gusting to 20, 25 miles an hour. And I believe that's what we are forecast for a couple of the days in the tournament.
It's tricky. You have to stand up there and really commit to some good shots and really have control of your ball flight. So it's certainly a challenging finish, one of the toughest we have all year.

Q. You're such a good iron player and the two par 3s in there --
LUKE DONALD: Hopefully I can put that to my advantage and gain some ground on the field. I think I have a reasonable record at the Bear Trap from what I remember playing here. I don't mind that it's tough. I think it's good. It favors me if I'm hitting the ball well and having control of my ball flight, then it definitely favors me.

Q. What is the one kind of money shot on those three holes?
LUKE DONALD: What's the toughest? I think 17 is probably the toughest shot, just from a personal standpoint. Usually the wind is a little bit in off the left. It pushing the ball towards the water. It's a little longer than the 15th hole, too.
16 is a good, solid par 4 but the water does not come into play as much as the other two holes. 17 is the toughest shot for me.

Q. Last year you went across the pond a bit obviously to get the points; will you defend in Madrid this year and will you play as often over there as you did last year?
LUKE DONALD: Yeah, my plan is to play at least six events in Europe. I think I played seven maybe last year. It won't vary too much. At the moment, Madrid is on my schedule. It's in October I think after THE TOUR Championship. It's moved. So I hoping to back there and defend.

Q. Do you know they are playing the Scottish up in Inverness at a links course. Will that make any difference to you going over?
LUKE DONALD: Yeah, I actually I've really looked at that and it's a strong possibility I'll play there. I think it would be good preparation for the Open.

Q. A curious line of questioning I saw on the transcripts after the Match Play, and I don't know if it was something that was like questioning your drive through the years to win or something and it mentioned like some ancient story that was in a British paper, citing you as sort of a modern day example of, I don't know --
LUKE DONALD: There's lots of talk about someone wrote about the 'Luke Donald Disease.'

Q. That was it?
LUKE DONALD: The disease that I'm satisfied picking up my Top-10 checks, being very happy about that. As I said in the media last week, there's nothing really further from the truth. I think my desire and work ethic is as good as anyone's out here. What's important to me is picking up trophies and not checks.

Q. Do you feel like you buried that?
LUKE DONALD: I hope so. It was brought up by someone and hopefully I got the message across that that's not Luke Donald. Luke Donald works hard and he's always looking for ways to get better and win as many times as he can.

Q. During that dry spell that you had --
LUKE DONALD: Sort of like Bubba Watson.

Q. Was there a particular runner-up finish or third-place finish that ate at you more than others?
LUKE DONALD: It's hard to think back. Even for me, finishing second and third isn't that memorable. So I'm struggling to remember any particular times. I'm sure there were a few in there.

Q. Do you think that perception was a product of expectations that were on you from the beginning that and you had very nice performances in majors throughout the years that they thought, well, maybe you haven't lived up to that?
LUKE DONALD: Somewhat. Again, I think I should really only follow my own expectations and I was disappointed. There was no one more disappointed not to have won than myself. I was always with my team and my coach and all of the people around me, we are always searching for ways to get better and put that to rest and try and pick up some trophies.
Hopefully we are onto something good this year and it's been working so far.

Q. How much has this event changed since you won it in 2006 and switched courses?
LUKE DONALD: Certainly in the last few years, looking back at some great winner, Ernie winning, Camilo, some great players winning this championship.
I think having it at this point in the schedule really helps. It's got a great, strong European field this week. A lot of the Euros are staying over between the World events and it's on a great golf course.
People, I think that's two main things that people look at, schedule-wise and if they like the course. Hats off to the tournament for making some changes and getting a better field because of it.
JOHN BUSH: Luke, we appreciate your time. Play well this week.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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